Staging of gastric carcinoma by computed tomography

ABSTRACT

Gastric cancer is the most prevalent gastrointestinal tract malignancy in Korea. By the time the patient hassymptoms, these tumors are usually advanced in stage. In high risk populations,screening such as double contrastUGI or gastric endoscopy is needed and patient with vague symptoms should be studied. However, these screeningshave high diagnostic accuracy rate, only CT scan can identify accurately abnormal stomach wall thickening andintraabdominal tumor extension. And CT is important for palnning of treatment, assessing surgical resectability,postoperative evaluation and prognostic implications. Author reviewed CT scan of 67 cases of confirmed gastriccancer by double contrast UGI or endoscopic biopsy, for 29 months from March 1983 to August 1985 at Department ofRadiology, Pusan National University Hospital. The results were as follows: 1. The most frequent site ofinvolvement of gastric cancer was gastric antrum in 49.9%(33/67). 2. By CT staging, stage 3 was 40.2%(27/67) andstage 4 was 38.8%(26/67). 3. In CT scan analysis, the structures involved by diect invasion were regional lymphnodes, pancrease, and gastrocolic ligament in order of frequency. The structures involved by distant metastaseswere liver, systemic lymph nodes, and mesentery in order of requency. 4. The diagnostic accuracy of CT staging was73.9%(17/23) by correlation of surgical and pathological findings. 5. In determination of stage by CT, the rate ofin accuracy of stage 2 was highest as 33%(2/6), and that of stage 3 was 29.2%(3/11). 6. Of all misdiagnoses,83.3%(5/6) was owing to failure to differentiate lymph node invasion from reactive hyperplasia of lymph node.